Embury Institute for Higher Education is a fully accredited private higher education institution that specialises in teacher education, specifically for pre-school and primary school teachers (Foundation and Intermediate Phases). Embury was established in 1995, and we believe that we produce some of the best trained teachers in South Africa. If you don't believe us, read this 2015 report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE). Herewith some extracts from the report:
The success rates of students in [Embury's] own programmes compare favourably with, or exceed, the various indicators of throughput at public universities. In 2013, for example, the success rate of the 100 students in their first year of the B Ed programme was 90 per cent, and of the 200 students in their fourth year, 70 per cent.
The lecturers are highly motivated, professional and experienced and the classes are smaller than those of public universities, allowing for more interaction with students.
It allocates considerably more time and attention to practical teaching than public HEIs. Their student teachers alternate between a week in schools and a week at Embury for their academic studies. Final year students spend an extended period of six to eight weeks in a school. During their degree they obtain experience in different types of schools – poorly resourced, well-resourced, and special needs schools.
By all accounts, Embury has developed a good, replicable model for private delivery of high-quality ITE for ECD and FP teachers, which offers some useful insights for the expansion of private provision